Revelation Chapter 21 Verse 1

• The word here in the Greek for “new” literally means recently made, fresh, unused, unworn…so literally this a  new heaven and a new earth and man I love the “new,” don’t you?  Especially a new car and one of the best parts…that new car smell!  Man that is awesome!  How do they do it?  We spend dollar after dollar buying that blue tree after we’ve owned our car for a year don’t we?  Trying to get that “new car scent” back!
• Well I wonder what the “new heaven scent” will be like…one thing is for sure, it won’t fade!  But something else cool here, this word for “new” in the Greek also means “unprecedented, unheard of” and I dig that.  What’s heaven going to be like?  “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has even entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that love Him.”  1 Corinthians 2:9.  So good.  That’s all I can say.  We can’t even begin to imagine the splendor and grander and new heaven scent, it’s that good!
• But why the new heaven?  I understand the new earth.  Pollution, junk, trash, thorns, poison ivy, cotton balls (I hate cotton balls!)…but the new heaven?  Well, it’s because even heaven must be cleansed.  Job 15:15 says that “the heavens are not pure in His sight.”  Why?  Well we see in the Book of Job that somehow, someway, Satan is still able to present himself before God in heaven.  We see it in Job 1, we see it in Job 2 and we even see it briefly in the Book of Revelation in Chapter 12, somehow Satan still shows up, somewhere, someway, in heaven…and so even heaven is defiled by sin man…
• So, here we are.  Satan gone.  Death gone.  Sin gone.  All that is impure gone.  Everything is made new.  What will it be like?  So good…
• Oh and John throws in, “there was no more sea.”  Why?  Because the sea was like John’s cotton ball…he hated it!  Remember, he’s exiled, on the island of Patmos, he IS CastAway…”WILSON!”  And he is very excited that there is no more sea!  This could also mean that there is no more division.  White, black, Italian, Greek, Cowboys, Redskins…the seas speak of nations in other parts of the Bible and so this could mean simple unity, peace…

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 2 – 5

• This is cool.  Because this is literally what John sees with his eyes, experiences with his senses, but this is also precisely what Paul was telling us of in 2 Corinthians 5:17.  Oh no, not the physical newness of creation like John is seeing but the “spysical” (spiritual and physical) new creation of a born again person!
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.”  How similar.  How identical.  How amazing.  That’s the same thing John said here isn’t it!? 
• John says he hears a loud voice and that voice says, “it’s all right, man.  The son is back with the Father.  The daughter is back with the Father.  What was lost has been found.”  Yes the lost child but also the lost communion, the lost communication, the missing vital, essential, singularly the most important and deepest need of each and every created child of God…the connection, the relationship with God has been restored.  How?  Through the cross of Jesus Christ.  He stomped your sin out and removed any reason for reparation…any cause of separation…
• And now, you, a new creation in Christ…you’re free man.  The past now fuels you, it doesn’t faze you any longer.  Who you were, what you’ve done, what’s been done to you, gone…washed away in the cleansing power of the Savior…and just as John says here, God and you…now dwell together. 
• Tears come, He consoles you…not Dr. Phil, not your momma, God’s consolation is strikingly potent!  Your days cease to be filled with death, just breathing to death man and now life enters and life abundant!  Sorrow, crying, pain over what you’ve done and even who you are…GONE!  Because He has arrived man…just like heaven, just like this scene.  “Behold,” God says, “I make all things new!  I give you, new creation scent!”  HA!  Awesome! 

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 6 – 8

• It is the courageous that face themselves and that face the cross.  The adventurist, the valiant, the gutsy…the tough and tenacious…it is the strong, man…to actually be honest with ourselves and see the plain truth, that we are all broken, busted…we all sin man and we all need a savior…and we gotta go for it man!  And look, God Himself says here that it is the cowardly who never go there.  Who see the hard path, the path of reality and the wide path, the path of fantasy and choose the easy way…
• And choosing the easy way, wimping out…right now, today, tonight, leads you somewhere.  The second death?  Well yes, but see it also leads you to unbelieving, to abominable living, to murder, to fornication, to substance abuse, to idolatry and lying…and yes, ultimately to the second death…
• But why go there man when the water of life is freely available to actually quench that thirst?  Another drug won’t do it.   Another job, another man, another car, another another another, there is no other man…Only God can satisfy what you seek.  And He freely gives, I dig that about Him…He doesn’t make Himself out of touch, out of reach, hard to get…not at all…

Revelation Chapter 21 Verse 9

• “Seven, seven, seven,” why?  Because it’s all complete!  It’s all perfect man, it’s all done!  And this angel now reveals to John (and to us through John) the perfect palatial peaceful picture of what Jesus purposed in His heart as He took away my sin.

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 10 – 11

• Jasper stone is a beautiful, dense, diamond like stone but it’s almost never, in fact naturally is never “clear as crystal.”  It’s typically spotted or tinted or streaked but this is something like we have never seen before.  The radiance of jasper, clear as crystal, precious and perfect.  Just like us man…naturally we will never be radiant, we will never be clear man…but 2 Cor 5:17…God can do that…

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 12 – 14

• Regardless of what you’ve heard, there is no mention of Peter chilling at the gates of heaven…however this is pretty neat, just like we saw with the 24 elders (Revelation 4), and really why I believe them to represent the entire church, we see here the bringing together, the completion, the marrying of the Old Testament and the New Testament characters into the bride of Christ with the names of the 12 tribes upon the 12 gates and the names of the 12 apostles upon the 12 foundations.

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 15 – 16

• And so it’s actually a cube, this great city, our home town, because John says here what he sees is that its length, breadth and height are all equal.  Now 12,000 furlongs is about 1,500 miles and so this New Jerusalem is roughly 3.4 billion cubic miles!  Huge.  But not too huge…remember, Matthew 7:14 which is interesting in and of itself because it is 7: 7+7, Jesus said, enter by the narrow gate because narrow is the path and difficult is the way which leads to life…few will find it…in the history of the world, scholars estimate that there have been over 100 billion people that have been born, lived and died…
• 100 billion living amongst eachother in roughly 3.5 billion cubic miles would give everyone about 180 cubic feet of living space…not much when you consider Jesus spoke of mansions…even your home today is probably more than 1,000 square feet…180 cubic feet would be about the size of a living room or bedroom…even apply the parable of the sower type of a percentage, 25% and you arrive at only 700 cubic feet per…still seems pretty slim if we’re talking mansions…
• According to wisegeek.com (so it’s gotta be right), “Most often, any home that is 6,000 square feet or more, and that has various elements associated with wealth, like pleasure grounds, home theaters, bowling alleys or extensive adult recreation rooms, would be called a mansion.”  Apply that kind of number, 6,000 square foot home + maybe conservatively another 1,000 square foot of space and you come up with a total population of about 500,000 spots…striking.  That’s less than 1 percent, much less than 1 percent, of the history of the world’s population…
• Is that the right number?  I don’t know (in fact no because John says he sees 10,000 thousands in Revelation 5 so that’s at least 1 billion)…all I do know is this, that many think they’ve got an address within this city, but according to Jesus, few man…sobering…makes you take a step back and survey your life, your heart, your activities because you do what you like…what you say…because what comes out of your mouth is what is really in your heart…and John was clear in writing his epistles, his letters, 1 John 1:6, “If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth…”
• But he goes onto say in the next verse, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin…” and if that’s you, then this is home…

Revelation Chapter 21 Verses 17 – 27

• John sees perfection.  The perfect place for the perfected bride…all because of the perfect sacrifice.  We need to take in this picture man…because we get so wrapped up in our day, so wrapped up in the cares of this world and the minute we take our focus off of eternity and get caught up in the present world, like Peter on the water, we begin to sink…and very quickly we’re underwater with stress, anxiety, anger, frustration, worry, depression, making all kinds of unwise decisions because, and you don’t even see this man, you’re growing or have grown desperate.
• Desperate for comfort, desperate for love, desperate for respect, desperate for entertainment, desperate for more…more of what?  You don’t even know…just more…but think upon home man…the extent to which you set your heart on things above is the extent to which you will be free from defeat and discouragement.  Open your heart, focus your mind, read Colossians 3:1-4 and be set free.